What Is Sanding Sugar?

By Andrea Cespedes

Sanding sugar gives a professional look to baked goods, though it's nothing more than coarsely ground white sugar. Sprinkle the large crystals on sugar cookies or scones, for added crunch, sparkle and color. Specialty baking stores carry sanding sugar in various colors, but you can also purchase white, coarse-ground granulated sugar and color it yourself.

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Halloween cookies with sanding sugar

Ideas for Use

Sprinkle white sanding sugar atop blueberry muffins or scones before baking; the sugar will not melt when subjected to the oven's heat. Red, green and gold sanding sugar makes an adornment for Christmas cookies. A bit of brightly colored sanding sugar sprinkled over white-frosted cupcakes adds pizzazz to a birthday party treat. Sanding sugar can also serve as a three-dimensional outline on frosted cookies or cakes.